A Toronto team was to be controlld for a wihle by the Arena Gardens while the problem of who owned the Toronto team was fixed. The franchise had players from the Toronto Blueshirts, including those who had been sent to other NHA teams for the second half of the 1916–17 NHA season. While Eddie Livingstone, who owned Toronto teams, agreed to do this, the NHL owners did not want to share any money with him. Livingstone would sue for the Toronto team's revenues in 1918. George Kennedy, owner of the Canadiens, would later say:

"The Toronto players belong as a body to the National Hockey League, for they were only loaned to the Toronto Arena Company, though Livingstone tried to make the Arena Company believe that he controlled those players"[1]

The Toronto team played without a nickname for the season. They would later be called the "Toronto Arenas."

The NHL was not supposed to be a permanent league. It was only supposed to exist until the NHA could fix the problem of teams in the NHA. The NHA was involved in a lawsuit against the 228th Battalion, who had a team in the NHA the year before, and could or would not fold until that was finished.

The O'Brien Cup was given to the new NHL from the NHA, and became the league's championship trophy. It was awarded to the winner of the NHL playoffs and that winner then went on to play for the Stanley Cup in a series against other leagues.

On January 9, 1918, the league decided to allow goaltenders to drop to the ice surface in order to make saves. This was the first implemented and amended rule change in the National Hockey League. It was done in response to Ottawa's Clint Benedict, who would fall to the ice to stop the puck, even though it was against the rules.

The new league had trouble getting players because there were other leagues at the time, including the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Also making it difficult was many people were involved in World War I, so they could not play hockey.

The Wanderers were in trouble from the start of the season. They won their first home game, but only had 700 people watch. The Wanderers then lost the next three games and owner Lichtenhein threatened to withdraw from the league unless he could get some other players. Although they could have acquired Joe Malone, who led the NHL in scoring, in the draft, they turned to the PCHA and signed goaltender Hap Holmes. They were also allowed to sign players like Frank Foyston, Jack Walker and others if they could get the players to agree. The Wanderers loaned Holmes to the Seattle Metropolitans of the PCHA, but he eventually came back to the NHL when Seattle loaned him to Toronto.

Ruins of Montreal Arena

A league meeting was planned to deal with the Wanderers, but on January 2, 1918, the it was fixed when the Montreal Arena burned down, leaving the Canadiens and Wanderers without a place to play. The Canadiens moved into the 3,250 seat Jubilee Rink. The Hamilton arena said the Wanderers could play there, but instead Lichtenhein shut down the team on January 4, after the other clubs refused to give him any more players. The remaining three teams would complete the season.

The first game of the season featured Toronto versus the Wanderers. Montreal's Dave Ritchie scored the first goal in NHL history and Harry Hyland had four goals in the Wanderers 10–9 victory, which would be their only one in the NHL. The opening game was played in front of 700 people.

On January 28, when Canadiens visited Toronto, players Alf Skinner and Joe Hall started swinging their sticks at each other. Both players received match penalties, $15 fines and were arrested by the Toronto Police for disorderly conduct, for which they received suspended sentences.

Wanderers defaulted scheduled games against the Canadiens (Jan. 2, 1918) and Toronto (Jan. 5, 1918), when their arena burned down. These were counted as losses in the standings, though the games were not played.

"The league did not accept the Wanderers' resignation immediately, electing to wait and see whether the team showed up for its scheduled match in Toronto on Saturday January 5. ... The deadline did expire, and the once-powerful team that had been known as the Little Men of Iron was thrown onto the scrap heap of hockey history. The Wanderers' scheduled games of January 2 and 5 were officially recorded in the standings as victories for their respective opponents, the Canadiens and Torontos." — Holzman.[2]

Montreal had won the first half of the NHL split season and Toronto had won the second half. The two teams then played a two-game total goals series for the NHL championship and the O'Brien Cup. Toronto won the series and advanced to the Stanley Cup finals.